Magellan

Arriving at Punta Tombo was a dream in itself. We had already made one pitstop in order to see several dolphins in Rawson, so my enthusiasm was growing every kilometer closer to the final destination of the day.

We were told the basic rules; no smoking, no touching, staying in between the white rocks marking the boundaries of our path, and, that if the penguins should choose to cross, we had to stop to let them.

There they were. So close! Some having nests near the parking area, meaning they would have to walk over 40 minutes just to get to the ocean to find food for their newborns.

I noticed that all you had to do was look for their splashes of white poop on the ground to see where they were napping under some of the dry grasses. Not exactly pleasant, but it's not like they have indoor plumbing available.

In fact, at one point I had seen a penguin just standing on our path, seemingly afraid to move. I and two other tourists tiptoed our way around him so as not to disturb the guy. When we passed, we noticed that he had just left a major "package" right behind him. My guess is he was covering up his embarrassment from all of these humans coming to see him.

Punta Tombo has a colony of over 100 thousand Magellanic Penguins. The number has decreased over the years to its current level, but other colonies, such as the one of Peninsula Valdez have begun.

The further into the territory you walked, the more there were. Sometimes, it was just a field of holes with penguins (some with their babes) standing up like those pictured--head up and mouth open, singing some muted song. I thought of Happy Feet and how the partners would sing together to know who was their mate.

Sometimes you would just stare at them and think maybe they were animatronics. These things couldn't be real. Until, well, they flapped their wings un-mechanically and waddled off toward the beach. At another colony, I had caught one scratching his head with his foot. "Yep, that one's definitely real!" I thought.

Mom bought me a stuffed penguin to befriend my current one named Charlie. I've decided they're cousins, and I've named him Magellan. For his first photo, he wanted to show off his Argentinian nature in this one, as he sips his maté from a bombillo with a little penguin on it as well. Chau!